Fatigue from Walking

Hi David. This PN is surely different for all of us at different times in our journeys. For me, my legs get easily fatigued from waking. The muscles around my knees don’t communicate with my nerves or something, so my stride is different. My knees go up and down a little when I walk, but I can’t step up on a curb or climb steps at all without using rails or a walker etc. So the activity of walking fatigues my muscles easily and quickly. That said, it means I need to sit down, not go to bed! It does not make me fatigued as in sleepy. That’s my experience with my PN only, others could easily be different.

Hello Debbie,

Thanks much for your response. Very informative and helpful.

David

@davidpn When you describe this, and that the doc doesn't think it is your neuropathy, I just have to ask whether you take a beta blocker (such as metoprolol) for your blood pressure?
For reasons that don't seem to be completely understood, these can cause a sensation of "heavy legs" while walking in some people. Other medications that have a tendency to make legs feel sluggish can include diuretics and statins.

Sometimes side effects of medications can masquerade as part of a disease or condition we have...often alternatives can be found that help improve our quality of life. It might be worth a chat with a PharmD - a doctor of pharmacy trained to evaluate the overall effects and interactions of all the medications you use.

Sue

Hi Sue,

No beta blockers, statins or diuretics. However will be seeing my pharmacist today and discuss meds.

Thanks for your input.

David

I have neuropathy in feet & legs due to an old back injury/surgery. When I hike with my wife, who is a fast walker, I notice that I breathe much harder than her to keep up the same pace. I have read that people that have nerve deficets in their legs actually are working harder than if their nerves were normal. My experience agrees with that. So it is not unexpected that your muscles would tire more easily because they are working harder than if you did not have neuropathy. Wish I had written where I read that but it was years ago now. Just keep at it and hope that your muscles build some stamina. (Try creatine right before exerciseing.)

Thanks for sharing you experience. Always helpful to hear from people that, unfortunately, have had similar issues.

@davidpn - As the expression goes, join the club! I have polyneuropathy and find walking very tiring and with numbness, poor balance and drop foot, my feet feel like they each weigh 30 pounds. Neuro doc at Johns Hopkins told me with my type of PN, tiredness and fatigue are common. And as commented above by Debbie, we all have PN for different reasons with different effects. Yes, walking is not easy but necessary.

Well talking about similar symptoms and the fact your neur at Johns Hopkins
validated that it’s common for folks with our type of PN it’s common.

Yet my neur said it’s not from neuropathy. Leaves me baffled. She must know better than that. I’m wondering if she was testing me out/ playing games. Said none of PN patients complain of Fatigue.

I told her I had trouble bending over and getting up putting a 5lb bag of water with koi fish into my pond. Later she stated it as 500 lbs. and I had to correct her. So that wasn’t even close.

Thanks for sharing.

Fatigue is a very common complaint from people with neuropathy. There are different types of neuropathy…sensory types or motor types …or both.
Muscle fatigue from neuropathy is extremely common…the muscles in your feet may be tiring from the walking. Continuing to walk and exercise is important with neuropathy. My neuropathy is quite variable…feet or ankles may feel fatigued a day or two then go away…and something else bothers. Do your own research online…there’s a ton of info. If your neurologist hasn’t seen the relationship between neuropathy and fatigue, I would question his/her qualifications.
One point to consider is newly diagnosed people often are experiencing high levels of an anxiety…which is an immense energy drainer..,you may be experiencing this as well.

Hi, David (@davidpn)

Having only been diagnosed in August 2022, so coming close to but not yet a full year, with idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, I regard my diagnosis as still a diagnosis-in-progress. My chief symptom is a wobbly walk. Luckily, I've no pain. But when I walk, especially for the shortest of distances and on a hard surface, like pavement, my legs can feel leaden. (What others have described, I say "Ditto!") But because my wobbliness preceded my diagnosis by several years, and I'd long ago cut back on my outdoor walking practically to never, today, I'm wondering if my weary legs are caused by my PN or by long-term lack of use, possibly, too, a touch of both. I'd like to believe that my every little Ouch! and Whoops! is not the result of my relatively new PN but rather a variety of pre-PN ouches and whoopsies. I'd an example of this dichotomy only last night, or more precisely, shortly after midnight this morning. After waiting since midafternoon to meet a friend's 6 pm flight at Denver airport, we learned that our friend's flight would be delayed to 9 pm, then to 10:30 pm, then to 12:20 am. We were dog-tired when we retrieved our friend from the airport (15 miles each way). As we were carrying our friend's luggage into the house, I lost my balance and went down rear-end first, luckily into the welcoming arms of a comfy chair. My partner and I discussed, last night and again this morning, whether my backward flop resulted from my PN or just plain ol' dog-tiredness. My partner assumed it was my PN. I maintained––and still do––that it was plain ol' dog-tiredness, the same ol' dog-tiredness I might have suffered at 50, 60, or 70. That's how I am about my leg weariness while walking. Is it my PN? Or is it a couple of years of leg neglect? Or a little of both? Exasperating business, this PN! LOL

Ray (@ray666)